I am completely new to this forum and to vegan bodybuilding and before participating in the discussions I’d like to resolve a few challenges related to bodybuilding that I’m facing right now. I hope you guys can answer more or less all of my questions, I would be very thankful

Firstly, here’s some information about my current situation I’m 86kg (190lbs and 185 (6’1) at the moment. I have gained ~6kg (13lbs) in 2 months (since July 21st). It seems that I have grown not only muscles, but some fat too. The only place I can feel some fat is my belly, but I can see it and feel it only when I sit.

Calorie intake

So the first thing I am concerned about is calorie intake. At the moment I am consuming approximately ~4000 calories a day more or less. That’s between 3500 – 5000. But the problem is that I rarely reach 5000. I’ve noticed that the amount consumed increases on the days I work-out.So my question is: How do you pound all that food into your stomachs? I read that sometimes you got to eat even 5000-8000calories in order to see the best results.I usually eat as much as I can until I get sick of it and then I take a break. A few times I tried to fit into “every 3 hours” regime, but I can’t seem to get this system, because it takes me at least 15-30min to prepare the food and another 30 minutes to eat it so usually I have only 2h out of 3h left till the second meal. 2 hours usually are not enough to digest everything so I choose to post-pone the meal for another hour OR stuff it in (in this case I can’t force myself to eat a lot). Well I read lots of articles, a little bit of books, but I can’t seem to find the answer how to actually eat so much.

By the way, in the bottom of this post I will leave my diet plan that is almost the same every day. Maybe you would have some suggestion what I could improve P.S. In Europe, especially in Denmark we don’t have vegan junk food, soya ice-creams, tofu hotdogs or similar. I can only get veggie, fruits, nuts, grains, seeds and some tofu in here. After looking for months I made conclusion that tempeh doesn’t exist in Denmark and we have only few types of soya products: Soy milk, Tofu, Deep fried tofu and soya beans.P.S.S. Protein bars are too expensive for me.

All the info is appreciated!

Protein powder

The second thing is protein powder… Do you really need it in order to grow and recover muscles? I mean, why it’s not enough just to eat a lot of food containing protein?Here’s my example: I just bought a big bucket (2kg) of rice protein (neutral taste, made in Denmark, so I decided to choose local). It tastes awful and one scoop (as I understand 100ml equals 30grams) has only 24grams of protein. I find it a lot easier to eat 100g of lentils (it has ~300kcal + ~23g of protein) than pouring that disgusting shake (my shakes usually are 600ml and consists a single fruit + couple of dates for taste + soy or rice milk)… Of course, I might blame the taste of shake, but in the same time, what’s the point to drink it if it is also easy to eat the same amount of protein?

Also how many grams of protein do you usually eat? Usually I see recommendation to get 1g per 1lb of body weight so that’s ~190grams for me. I usually consume 170-230grams per day from food, without protein powders. I thought that protein powder would make it easier for me to increase protein intake, but it seems that one shake (600ml) takes all the hungriness away and I don’t want to eat for another hour or two.

Also, is it very bad if I get only ~120 grams of protein on the second resting day? My muscles don’t hurt anymore and for instance today I just can’t force myself to eat any more. How do you force yourself to eat on these days?

Please let me know what you think and what suggestion do you have!

Vitamins, supplements, etc.

I’m avoiding any kinds of medicine and vitamins… My personal opinion (based on some sources) is that I should get all necessary vitamins, minerals from natural food. I think that it’s just bunch of lies by pharmacy industry and doctors. Here in Europe it’s quite unpopular to take vitamins. Also I’m thinking about ancient athletes when they never even knew about stuff such as vitamins, supplements, etc. but they stayed fit (if to believe when you see these statues ). Or animals… Vegan diet is something similar to one that animals have, but they don’t go to pharmacy shop to get “healthy”.

Front time to time I also consider that maybe there is a need to take some supplements.

What is your opinion about that?

Fat loss, leaning, cardio

I’m feeling kind of stupid to ask this question, but I simply couldn’t find the right answer yet. How do you prevent your bodies from gaining fat? I mean, bodybuilders are supposed to eat a lot, but I am afraid that I will get a belly after couple of months of this diet. You might say: do cardio! But I’m TOTALLY bad at this field. I am afraid that I might start losing muscle mass. How much cardio should I do and is it necessary? What if I don’t do any cardio at all? Maybe there is some magic way of eating without getting fat?

Also recently I read an interview of one bodybuilder, he said that he lost fat automatically when he went on vegan diet. And it seems that for me it’s different – I’m gaining it (or at least I think so).

Any suggestions?

Bloating, gas

Yup, I know that this is a very uncomfortable topic for some But how do you prevent it? I don’t want to take any pills or medicine, but some days are just bad… I don’t know why some days I’m like chemical weapon and why some days are okay. The only suggestion I got so far was – to decrease amount of food that I’m eating. We all know that it’s impossible

Did you experience that? What did you do?

Types of workout

I think that I’m “mesomorph” type. Well I’m 99% sure about that. I have found some information on the internet saying that it matters what kind of workout you choose when bodybuilding. It also seems that these suggestions differ in different sources.

So, does anyone know which kind of workout should mesomorphs do in order to gain muscle mass?

My every day diet

I've told you that I want to increase the calorie and protein intake and I was hoping that you could take a look at my diet and suggest something Here it is:

Breakfast:1. ~1,5 liter of Green Smoothie (usually bunch of Kale, 2-3 bananas, 1-2 apples, some raw dates, some grapes and if I have some – soy or rice milk.) That’s approximately 400-750kcal depending on the amount + 5-10g of protein.2. Bowl of Muesli: 200g of oats (~660kcal + 36g); 50g of almonds and other nuts (~300kcal+10g); 1 banana (100kcal); sunflower, sesame and some chia seeds (~100kcal+few grams of protein); some raw dates.That’s another ~1300kcal + ~50g of protein.Breakfast in total: ~1800kcal + 55-60g. of protein.Lunch:3. ~300g of beans (1000kcal + 66g of protein)4. Green smoothie (~500kcal + ~5g of protein)Dinner:5. Bowl of veggies (broccoli, tomatoes, cucumber) + sunflower seeds, a spoon of olive oil, maybe some more beans or lentils (~400kcal + ~20g. of protein)6. A few sandwiches (rye bread (rugbrød) with peanut butter and some jam) (~500kcal + ~25g of protein)7. Late dinner – another bowl of muesli (7 kinds of grains and the same stuff like before) (~1000kcal + 40g of protein)Well that’s approximately 4900-5500kcal + ~200g. of protein, but the diet plan you see here is the one of “those hungry days”. The actual numbers might be 20-30% smaller from day to day. For instance, today I ran out of beans and oats so I had to improvise, but I believe that I still got only ~3500kcal + ~150 grams of protein today.

These were all the concerns that I have, I do really hope that you'll find a few minutes to give me at least some basic suggestions

Thanks!

Aurijus

Last edited by Aurijus on Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm current training with a H.I.T trainer John Martini, hes the current Overall Mr Northern Ireland BB champion (small country, but very high stranded's), he also 3 weeks out from the NABBA Mr Universe (he'll be compete with Lee Priest who's making a comeback this year). John has me focusing on hypertrophy specific techniques, such as pre-exhaustion, if you look at my training log you'll see want i mean.

Dont be concerned with how long you spend in the gym, when training intensely, you cant tolerate all that much, and don't judge your workouts by "feel" or how pumped you get, stimulate growth, then get the hell out of the gym, go home rest, eat, compensate (recover) and over-compensate (grow). Also, keep in mind, that even if your using a split routine, you must not merely allow for localized recovery, you MUST allow for systemic recovery, intense exercise effects the entire physical system.

As far as nutrition goes, keep it simple, as long as your making a daily effort to obtain a varied well balanced diet, you've got it covered. Focus more on the quality, rather than the quantity of food. If you feel a protein shake or 2 will help, go for it. Am not big into supplements myself, i feel their money spinners, and as you rightly pointed out, when you look back through history you'll see that people have been developing muscular physique's for thousands of years, without the need for supplements or "engineered foods".

My trainer got down to 3% BF for his last contest, he preform's no steady state activity what so ever, just 30-40 minute H.I.T workouts.This was a video of him 6 weeks ago, hes now as i mentioned only 3 weeks out from the Mr Uhttp://irishmuscle.ie/john-martini-9-we ... erse-2013/

Best of luck with your journey, and if you want me to elaborate more, just let me know:)